Chris Schweizer

Chris Schweizer in an American author and artist of all-ages comics and graphic novels. Schweizer is the creator of the Eisner-nominated historical fiction series The Crogan Adventures and the humorous mystery horror series The Creeps.

Schweizer was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1980, presumably sporting a thick mustache and stumble. Born to musical parents, Schweizer’s penchant was for drawing. During college, he illustrated a comic strip for the newspaper and was paid $25 a week. He went on to study Graphic Design and English at Murray State University in Kentucky, receiving a BFA in 2004.

The newly graduated Schweizer set his sights on drawing a newspaper strip. However, after his submission was rejected he decided to shift his focus to graphic novels. Schweizer researched graduate programs and decided on Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Atlanta. He received his MFA in Sequential Art and landed a job to boot, teaching comics at SCAD for five years.

Fascinated by the “terrible, terrible past,” Crogan’s Adventures lets Schweizer stretch his retrophiliac imagination. Spanning 300 years of world history, the action-packed tales follow different members of the fictitious Crogan family. The format cleverly gives Schweizer the opportunity to try something different with each new project. To date, Schweizer has completed 3 Crogan’s Adventure featuring: the buccaneering struggles of a mariner after his ship is waylaid by pirates in Crogan’s Vengeance (2008); the raffish escapades of French legionnaire confronting the end of his military contract in Crogan’s March (2010); and the brewing conflict of two brothers on opposite sides during the Revolution War in Crogan’s Loyalty (2012). He has said he is working on a new Crogan Adventure set in 1920s warlord era China.

For 3 years now, Schweizer has put up verbose videos of his comic-making process and thinking. They are informative and charming, and you certainly should subscribe to his channel right now.

I will leave you with some great advice for aspiring comic artist:

Don’t try to find a style. Your style finds you. If you try to pick it you’ll be fighting against your own natural development and it will take you way longer to get good than it otherwise might. Just draw, how you draw.— Chris Schweizer

You can find more of Chris Schweizer’s work on his blog, Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter. I highly recommend picking up his sketchbooks, they are jampacked with characters and entirely hand-lettered!